Around Here editor/writer

When Joan Miller arrived at her property off U.S. Highway 78 near Arnoldsville last Wednesday after hearing a building had been hit by a truck, she was shocked to find the cement-block structure virtually demolished.

The trucker had hit an awning that once covered gas pumps, demolished the former store, and flattened a basketball goal on one side of the parking lot.“I don’t see how he could hit all that,” Miller said. “He must have been moving pretty fast.”

The truck destroyed the building that the owners valued at $50,000. Miller and her husband, Jack, had someone giving them an estimate Friday on moving the debris.

The truck driver, Donald Porter of Branchland, W.Va., told an Oglethorpe County Sheriff’s deputy that he couldn’t find anyone at the location to explain what happened, so he planned to return after making a delivery, according to the accident report.

However, J.C. Webb, who owns J’s Package Store about 10 feet from the destroyed building, said Friday he never saw the trucker make an attempt to stop and locate anyone associated with the building, which was vacant.

Webb said he saw the truck hit the awning, which caused him to step outside his store where he observed the truck hit the building.

“I went back inside and grabbed my phone and came back outside,” he said. “He was already on the road. That was maybe 15 seconds of him hitting the building and getting back on the road.”

Webb left his store unattended as he got into his car and went in pursuit of the truck.

However, during the pursuit, Webb drove through an area where a Georgia State Patrol accident reconstruction team was working. Troopers saw Webb cross a double yellow line, then force the truck to stop in the roadway by getting in front and stopping, according to the patrol.

Webb received three traffic violation citations as a result.

When troopers told the two men to move their vehicles off the roadway, the truck driver hit a “yield sign” as he pulled onto Yancey Road, according to the patrol. Porter was cited for making an improper turn.

Troopers and an officer with the Motor Carrier Compliance Division interviewed the trucker and there was no indication he was impaired, according to a patrol statement. Miller said she called the trucking company in Indiana and she was told the driver was notified to take a drug test.

Webb said he spoke to the driver after he forced him to stop about 2 miles from the store.

“He told me he was going to make the delivery, then come back and figure who owned the property. That’s not something I believe,” said Webb, who said he hopes the court will show him some leniency on the citations.